Category Archives: War

Some weeks ago I wrote a wormseye, simultaneously flip and depressed, urging that GW Bush be re-elected this autumn since most Americans still can’t see what was wrong with electing him the first time. They need to learn, and nothing … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Hitchens, you’re a journalist, one of the best of our time. And still you can write, with a straight face, this: As to the accusation that Chalabi has endangered American national security by slipping secrets to Tehran, I can only … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Abu Hamza is undoubtedly a nasty piece of work. With even less doubt, he is entitled to the protection of the law. We won’t, quite rightly, extradite him to face the death penalty in the USA; we won’t extradite him … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Of all the people now entitled to Schadenfreude we should give special consideration to Anatol Lieven. In September 2002 he wrote an article in the LRB, which has been at the back of my mind ever since. His foresight was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The whole glorious story of how the Iranian intelligence service used Ahmed Chalabi to con the Americans into destroying Saddam Hussein for them has one final, delicious twist. This really has been a war to end wars. It will be … Continue reading → Continue reading →

My wife’s grandfather went through the battle of Jutland as a sixteen-year-old midshipman. Among the books that have come down to us from him was an anonymous work, published in 1916, From Dartmouth to the Dardanelles, the diary of another … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Well, semi-acoustic music for the mind and body — there’s a real audio link direct for those of you who get the Country Joe reference and just want to hear it. Makes a nice contrast to Matthew Parris, who has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Can the words “As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility.” not be followed by these. “The president has therefore accepted my resignation.”? It seems an offence against grammar that they were not, as if … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It took the Americans about ten or fifteen years to convince themselves that they had not been defeated in Vietnam, and another ten or fifteen to convince themselves that they had actually won, as a majority apparently believe today. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I can quite believe that British troops are capable of beating up Iraqi prisoners, but when I read the — quite convincing — counter-attacks on the Mirror’s photographs my first reaction was national pride: at least our army is still … Continue reading → Continue reading →